A Miami man who had been released from prison early for good behaviour has been convicted of trying to kill a young mother and leaving her five-year-old daughter to be eaten alive by alligators.

Harrel Franklin Braddy was convicted on Tuesday of seven counts including first-degree murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, burglary and escape. He faces the death penalty.

Braddy had befriended Shandelle Maycock and her daughter, Quatisha, the court heard. Ms Maycock said that Braddy went to her home in November 1998 and grew enraged when she asked him to leave.

He choked the mother until she was unconscious and then forced her and Quatisha into his car. At one point, Ms Maycock gained consciousness, grabbed the child and jumped out of the vehicle.

Braddy stopped, choked the woman again and put her in the boot. Ms Maycock never saw her daughter again. Prosecutors said Braddy then drove to an area of Florida's Everglades known as Alligator Alley and dropped Quatisha in the water beside the road.

The girl's body was found two days later, her left arm missing and her skull crushed, prosecutors said. Ms Maycock woke up bleeding and disoriented in a cane field miles from her home in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

Braddy had served 13 years of a 30-year prison sentence for attempted murder before being released. The trial had been delayed for more than eight years because Braddy sacked several lawyers and at one point represented himself. A dozen law enforcement officers stood guard, aware that Braddy has escaped from the courthouse before.